Factors influencing household food security among smallholder farmers in the Mudzi district of Zimbabwe

Figures & data

Table 1: Independent variables

Variable	Description	Expected sign
Headage	Age of household head	–
Headeduc	Education level of household head (number of years)	+
Genderhh	Gender of household head (1 = male, 0 = female)	+/–
Household labour	Number of household members aged 16 to 65	+
Household size	Household size	–
Market info	Access to market information (1 if household has access, 0 otherwise)	+
Remittances	Household receives remittances (1 if true, 0 if not)	+
Livestock wealth	Weighted index for livestock wealth (total livestock units)	+

Figure 1: Map of Zimbabwe showing the Mudzi district

Table 2: Sample characterisation

Variable	Mean or proportion	Standard deviation
Age of household head	52.23	14.9800
Gender of household head	77.50	0.0384
Education of household head (% with secondary)	45.83	0.0457
Household size	5.91	2.4200
Household labour	2.86	1.6900
Livestock wealth	56.59	53.4900
Remittances (proportion)	40.00	0.0450
Market information (proportion)	64.17	0.0440

Table 3: Household dietary diversity scores and dietary terciles for smallholder farmers in the Mudzi district

	Proportion of households (%)
Household dietary diversity score
Proportion of households with HDDS of 2 to 4	15.00
Proportion of households with HDDS of 5 to 7	73.33
Proportion of households with HDDS of 8 to 9	11.67
Household dietary diversity score terciles
Low (groups 1 to 4)	15.00
Medium (groups 5 to 8)	80.00
High (groups 9 to 12)	5.00

Table 4: Percentage distribution of responses to the HFIAS during the past 30 days

Indicator	% affirmative response
Anxiety about food insecurity	69.20
Inability to eat preferred foods	84.20
Availability of only a limited variety owing to a lack of resources	83.20
Inability to eat even less-preferred food	81.70
Availability of only smaller amounts of food	52.50
Reduced number of meals	51.70
Having no food in the house	26.70
Going to bed without having eaten any food	18.30
Spending the day and night without any food	24.20

Table 5: Determinants of household dietary diversity in the Mudzi district

Explanatory variable	Coefficient	Standard error	p-value
Head_gender	0.0760	0.3076	0.805
Head_age	–0.0173	0.0102	0.092*
Household_labor	0.2342	0.0951	0.015**
Head_education^a	0.4631	0.2290	0.046**
Household_size	–0.1194	0.0671	0.078*
Remittances	0.8294	0.2573	0.002***
Livestock_wealth	0.0059	0.0024	0.018**
Market_information^b	0.5021	0.2828	0.079*
Constant	5.2653	0.7465	0.000***

Notes: N = 120, F(8, 111) = 7.37, R² = 34.69. Significant levels: ***1%, **5%, *10%. ^a,bVariables influenced by the project.

Table 6: Determinants of household food insecurity access score

Explanatory variable	Coefficient	Standard error	p-value
Head_gender	1.7614	1.5400	0.2550
Head_age	0.0432	0.0511	0.4000
Household_labor	–0.8298	0.4761	0.0840*
Head_education^a	–3.3972	1.1466	0.0040***
Household_size	0.7517	0.3358	0.0270**
Remittances	–3.8782	1.2881	0.0030***
Livestock_wealth	–0.0342	0.0122	0.0060**
Market_info^b	–3.1026	1.4162	0.0310**
Constant	14.9893	3.7378	0.0000***

Notes: N = 120, F(8, 111) = 8.15, R² = 37.00. Significant levels: ***1%, **5%, *10%. ^a,bVariables influenced by the project.